Features

When making orders in terms of s.11 of the Children (Scotland) Act 1995 the court requires to give children the opportunity to express their views and to take those views into account. In the recently published decision of PSC v NS Lady Tait considers how to do so where the strongly expressed views

In To See Ourselves; A Personal History of Scotland Since 1950 Alistair Moffat assists those baby boomers among us who could never quite persuade our sceptical children how very different our cod liver oil and orange juice childhoods were from theirs.  The lost years 1945 to 1965 were a never-n

Ronnie Clancy KC analyses the collapse of a prosecution in England brought against two men accused of spying for China. The recently abandoned case against two individuals who were due to stand trial on charges of spying for China is by no means the first prosecution to hit the buffers because of na

A third of Scotland's school roll has parents who live separately. Some, by agreement or by court order, share the parenting of the children on an equal, 50:50 basis. For others, the children will reside exclusively with one parent and may have little or no contact with the other. The likelihood is

With a projected £50 billion shortfall in public finances and a pledge not to raise income tax, national insurance or VAT, speculation is mounting that Chancellor Rachel Reeves may turn again to Inheritance Tax (IHT) reform when she makes her autumn budget statement on 26 November, writes Emma

Kate Bradbury reflects on the Scots family law bible as it turns 40. Built to last… and that it was. 2025 marks the 40th anniversary of the Family Law (Scotland) Act 1985. To this day, it remains the legislative bible for Scottish family law practitioners advising clients on separation and di

In the first of four interviews undertaken by SEMLA for Black History Month we spotlight Harper Macleod trainee Arnold Masayila. Can you tell us a little about your journey into law and what inspired you to pursue it?

With the UK government’s consultation on mandating major companies and financial services firms to develop and implement climate transition plans now closed, the spotlight is turning not just on corporate strategy, but on their legal responsibilities. By 2023, more than 70 per cent of FTSE 100

For over 25 years, John Sweetman worked as a detective garda attached to the Technical Bureau in police headquarters, Dublin. He qualified as a fingerprint expert and later as a security document and handwriting expert. He spent much of his time examining crime scenes, and later scenes of crime exhi

The Scottish legal market stands at a crossroads. Earlier this year, the Scottish Parliament passed the Regulation of Legal Services (Scotland) Act 2025, a landmark piece of legislation that promised to reshape the profession. Most significantly, it repealed section 49 of the Legal Services (Scotlan

Travel writing, as a literary genre has many guises. The Fodors, Rough Guides, and Baedekers are on-the-hoof advisories. My 1912 Egyptian edition of the latter, for example, advised not shaving on the Nile for fear of your steamer striking a sandbank. James (later Jan) Morris’s 1960 classic on

If you've ever passed by the Royal Faculty of Procurators in Glasgow building and looked up, you may have noticed something carved into the stonework – a figure surrounded by a tree, a bird, a bell, and a fish.

It was unsurprising that the announcement of the winner of a Scottish literary award earlier this month received media attention. What was rather more noteworthy about this event was that it was reported in Scottish Legal News. The recipient of the McIlvanney Prize (named in memory of the late Willi

The English legal press had their knives out for the Law Society of Scotland this past week. This was on the back of its announcement of a deferral of at least a further two years (to add to the existing 15 years since the introduction of the Legal Services (Scotland) Act 2010) in bringing about alt

“Mediation is no-one’s little brother. Mediation is not alternative dispute resolution. It is not the easy option. Mediation is how the most intractable issues can be resolved.” The words I quote above are those of leading New Zealand mediator, Mark Kelly. Kelly has done mediation